Creating Photo Borders with Photoshop's Brushes Tutorial

Creating Photo Borders With Photoshop's Brushes

Learn Photoshop with Photoshop Effects Tutorials at Photoshop Essentials.com

Step 15: Add A Color Overlay Layer Style To "Layer 2"

To change the color of your photo border to something other than white, first switch back over to your Layers panel. Make sure "Layer 2" is selected and highlighted in blue, then click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and select Color Overlay from the list that appears:

Choosing a Color Overlay Layer Style in Photoshop. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com.
Switch back to the Layers panel, click on the Layer Styles icon and choose Color Overlay.

This brings up Photoshop's Layer Style dialog box set to the Color Overlay options in the center column. To change the color, click on the color swatch:

Changing the color of the Color Overlay layer style. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com.
Click on the Color Swatch to change the photo border color.

This brings up Photoshop' Color Picker:

The Color Picker in Photoshop. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com.
Photoshop's Color Picker dialog box.

You can choose a color from the Color Picker, but what I prefer to do with photo borders is sample a color directly from the photo itself, which allows the border to blend in more naturally. To sample a color from the photo, leave the Color Picker open and move your mouse cursor over the image. You'll see the cursor change to an eyedropper icon. Click on the color you want to sample and you'll see the color of the photo border instantly change to that color. I'm going to sample a grayish-red color from the fence:

Sampling a color from the photo. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com.
Click on a color in the photo to sample it and use it as your border color.

Once you've chosen your color, click OK to exit out of the Color Picker, then click OK to exit out of the Layer Style dialog box, and you're done! Here's my photo border after stroking the path initially with the Brush Tool, erasing part of it with the Eraser Tool, and finally, changing the color of the border with a Color Overlay layer style:

Photoshop brushes photo border effect. Image © 2009 Photoshop Essentials.com.
The final photo border effect.

And there we have it!

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